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Omar Jimenez

CNN Profiles - Omar Jimenez - Correspondent - CNN

Omar JimenezBornOmar Fernando Jimenez November 27, 1993 , USOther namesOJ TropicanaAlma mater ()OccupationEmployerHome town, USWebsiteOmar Fernando Jimenez (born November 27, 1993) is an American journalist and working for .

Contents Early life and education[] Jimenez was born in and raised in . He is ; his mother, Jayne Morgan, is African-American, and his father, Omar Jimenez, is . Jimenez has two brothers. When he was in sixth grade, his parents divorced, and he lived with his mother.

Jimenez attended . While playing high school basketball, Jimenez fractured his back and was unable to play for eight months. He attended the at , where he majored in . He played on the from 2011 to 2013 at Northwestern after a successful walk-on tryout. With other journalism and law students, Jimenez worked with the Chicago Innocence Project to investigate .

Career[] Jimenez began his career in journalism as an intern in ' bureau. For almost 4 years, Jimenez worked on-air as a multimedia journalist at in . He was a general assignment reporter and fill-in anchor at in . Jimenez worked at WBAL from July 2015 to June 2017.

Jimenez has worked at since August 7, 2017, first at CNN Newsource in He has reported for over 900 CNN affiliate news stations nationwide covering breaking news. He is now based in Chicago as a CNN correspondent.

In May 2020, he was arrested live on air while covering the reaction to the in , during the . He was arrested as part of a three-person news crew, along with producer Bill Kirkos and camera operator Leonel Mendez. They were released about an hour later, and Minnesota Governor apologized to CNN President for the incident.

Awards and honors[] At Northwestern, he won various national and regional student awards for reporting, including the National Mark of Excellence Award for student television reporting from the and a Bronze award from the National College Emmys in the newscast category.

While working at , Jimenez received an individual nomination for general assignment reporting.

Personal life[] Jimenez started doing music in high school. He enjoys rap and hip-hop, and has released music on under the name OJ Tropicana. His debut EP, Reporting Live, was released in 2017. He worked with producer Daiz and musician Drew Tildon. His artistry is influenced by . In 2013, he appeared on a "Battle of the Instant Rappers" segment on .

See also[] References[] External links[] [//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:CentralAutoLogin/start?type=1x1]Retrieved from "": Hidden categories: Omar Jimenez (CNN Reporter) Wiki, Age, Family, Salary, Height, Net ... 23 hours ago By Omar Jimenez, the CNN reporter who was arrested and released Friday morning during the Minneapolis protests, grew up in Kennesaw and graduated from Kennesaw Mountain High School in 2011.

>>RELATED:

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz publicly apologized to CNN during a live press conference for what happened and ensured Jimenez and his crew were released within an hour with no charges.

The cops arrested him and his crew, claiming that they were not moving when told to do so, .

Jimenez was named a national correspondent for CNN last summer out of the Chicago bureau to cover breaking news in the Midwestern states.

He was born in Worcester, Massachusetts but raised in Kennesaw. According to his personal bio, Jimenez and worked at the school’s television station. .

Rev. Raphael Warnock on Twitter said Jimenez and his family have been members of his Ebenezer Baptist Church.

At Northwestern, , acted in several plays and rapped under the pseudonym “OJ Tropicana,” .

While in college, he interned at CNN and NBC News.

He also worked with the Chicago Innocence Project where he investigated potential wrongful convictions with fellow journalists and law students.

After graduating from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern in 2015, he worked in Baltimore as a reporter at WBAL-TV for two years.

>> RELATED:

From 2017 to 2019, he reported for CNN News Source, providing news to CNN’s 900 local affiliates. Among the stories he did: the aftermath of the Notre Dame Cathedral fire, the Las Vegas mass shooting, and the 2017 hurricanes that battered Florida and Texas.

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About the Author Rodney Ho covers radio and television for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. X UndoUndoUndoUndoUndoUndoUndoUndoUndoUndoUndoUndoUndo UndoUndoUndoUndoUndoUndoUndoUndoUndoUndoUndoUndoUndoUndoUndoUndoUndoUndoUndoUndoUndoUndo VIDEO] CNN Reporter Omar Jimenez Arrested at George Floyd Protests ... arrow-down arrow-left arrow-line-down arrow-line-up arrow-navigate-left arrow-navigate-right arrow-right arrow-up arrow-up-travel checkmark close cnn-go cnn collection-player-info collection-player-leftarrow collection-player-play collection-player-rightarrow collection-player-save collection-player-share comment expand-close expand-open follow games home ireport media-cc media-end media-fastforward media-fullscreen media-minimize media-mute media-pause media-play media-restart media-rewind media-start media-stop media-volume menu profile quote rss search settings share-arrow social-facebook-outline social-googleplus social-instagram social-instagram-outline social-linkedin social-more social-pinterest social-reddit social-stumbleupon social-tumblr social-tvtag social-twitter social-twitter-outline social-vimeo social-vine social-whatsapp social-youtube timestamp trend-down trend-flat trend-up type-audio type-chart type-gallery type-map type-video-large type-video type-video-travel xtype-video-watchcnnlive y01-star-outline y02-star-solid y03-social-messenger y04-social-messenger-bolt y05-entertainment-arrow-left y06-entertainment-arrow-right y07-entertainment-menu y08-entertainment-search y09-entertainment-type-gallery y10-entertainment-type-video y11-type-video360 stick-arrow-up stick-arrow-right sharing link-copy politics-logo catchup-close CNN reporter says she's never seen this before2:57By Melissa Macaya, Mike Hayes, , , , , and , CNN

Updated 8:20 a.m. ET, May 30, 2020share with Facebookshare with Twittershare with emailshare link78 PostsSort byLatestOldest Dropdown arrow

CNN correspondent Josh Campbell. CNNCNN journalist Josh Campbell is also on the ground in Minneapolis, not far from where CNN reporter Omar Jimenez and his team were arrested by officers early this morning. They have since been released.

Speaking to Campbell earlier, CNN anchor John Berman pointed out that Jimenez is black and latino, and Campbell is white, though he said he did not know whether race played a factor in Jimenez’s arrest.

> Campbell said he was "treated much differently." Here's what he told Berman: "I was treated much differently than [CNN correspondent Omar Jimenez] was. I'm sitting here talking to the National Guard, talking to the police. They're asking politely to move here and there. A couple times I've moved closer than they would like. They asked politely to move back. They didn't pull out the handcuffs. Lot different here than what Omar experienced." Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz called the arrest unacceptable and totally inadvertent.

The Minnesota State Patrol released this statement on Twitter: "In the course of clearing the streets and restoring order at Lake Street and Snelling Avenue, four people were arrested by State Patrol troopers, including three members of a CNN crew. The three were released once they were confirmed to be members of the media."

​CNN broadcast shows Jimenez clearly ​displaying his CNN badge before he was restrained.



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CNN reporter Omar Jimenez. CNNLaura Coates, CNN's legal analyst, said the arrest of CNN reporter Omar Jimenez is "why people don't have faith in what might happen in Hennepin County."

Jimenez, who identifies as both black and Latino, was arrested early on Friday while reporting live on the protests in Minneapolis. Coates pointed out that Josh Campbell, another CNN journalist on the ground in Minneapolis, was treated very differently.

> "He was asked the same line of questions that Omar Jimenez was. One was arrested ... the letters CNN, meant nothing for Omar, they meant everything, apparently, to add the credibility that was given and extended to Josh Campbell by default," Coates said. Coates added: "Four officers who were involved in the killing of an unarmed black man whose body was on the street and handcuffed behind his back, they have not been arrested since Monday or charged with any crime. Omar Jimenez shows a credential, a camera is running, his crew and producers are saying who they are and they were arrested sooner. Optically, this is why people don't have faith in what might happen in county."

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CNN reporter Omar Jimenez. Jeremy Freeman/CNNCNN reporter journalism career began roughly eight years ago.

Jimenez, whose mother is black and father identifies as Colombian, worked in Baltimore at WBAL-TV before joining CNN in 2017.

In Maryland, he covered the trials for the officers charged in the death of Freddie Gray, was the lead story on the station's Emmy award-winning special on opioids, and published pieces on opioid influence in the state and the fight against child sex trafficking.

Jimenez first worked with CNN's Newsource, based in Washington, DC.

While at Newsource, Jimenez reported from the ground in Paris in the aftermath of the Notre Dame Cathedral fire, from Las Vegas just hours after the mass shooting there, the deadliest in modern American history and from Florida and Texas during the 2017 hurricanes.

He graduated from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, where he also played on the varsity men's basketball team. While in school, Jimenez was also an intern with CNN.

Learn more about Jimenez's career below:



share with Facebookshare with Twittershare with emailshare linkCNN reporter Omar Jimenez. CNNCNN's reporter Omar Jimenez, who was released from custody in the past few minutes after he was earlier arrested live on air, said he was comforted by the fact that at least people could see what was happening.

> "That gave me a little bit of comfort knowing that you guys saw what was happening, I was living what was happening and the country was seeing what was happening unfold in real-time before their eyes. As we were walking away, and you were taking in the entire neighborhood that had been decimated from the passion of the protesters and unfortunately some of the rioting and looting that we had seen, it did cross my mind that, what is really happening here?" Watch: > share with Facebookshare with Twittershare with emailshare link

CNN reporter Omar Jimenez. CNNCNN correspondent Omar Jimenez and his crew have been released from police custody.

Jimenez, along with producer Bill Kirkos and photojournalist Leonel Mendez, were arrested shortly after 6 a.m. ET live on CNN air, while reporting on the protests in Minneapolis.

The team was released from the Hennepin County Public Safety facility in downtown Minneapolis just a few minutes ago.

share with Facebookshare with Twittershare with emailshare linkCNN president Jeff Zucker spoke with the governor of Minnesota, Tim Walz on Friday morning, following the arrest of CNN's team in Minneapolis,

Walz said he "deeply apologizes" for what happened and is working to have the CNN team released immediately.

Walz described the arrests as "unacceptable," said CNN's team clearly has the right to be there, and said he wants the media to be in Minnesota to cover the protests.

Watch:



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CNN reporter Omar Jimenez. CNNA CNN crew has been taken to custody amid protests in Minneapolis early on Friday morning.

Here is how the situation unfolded:

At 5:09 a.m. local time, CNN correspondent Omar Jimenez was reporting live on an arrest happening in the area near a city police department precinct that protesters had burned and officers had abandoned overnight.

About a block away, a fire was burning at a different, four-story building that had contained restaurants. He was standing in front of a long line of police officers in riot gear.

Shortly after his crew captured the arrest on camera, the police officers moved towards Jimenez and his crew, asking them to move.

Jimenez told the officers he and his three colleagues were part of the same CNN crew and calmly identified himself with his CNN identification card.

Jimenez was then heard as telling the officers:

> "We can move back to where you'd like. We can move back to where you'd like here. We are live on the air at the moment. This is the four of us. We are one team. Just put us back where you want us. We're getting out of your way. So, just let us know. Wherever you'd want us, we will go. We were just getting out of your way when you were advancing through the intersection. Let us know and we've got you." At 5:11 a.m., two officers in riot gear stepped up to Jimenez and said "you are under arrest."

Jimenez calmly asked why was he under arrest.

"Why am I under arrest, sir?"

He was then handcuffed and led away by the police, as the camera kept rolling.

Shortly after that, CNN photojournalist Leonel Mendez who was with Jimenez said he and the rest of the crew were also being arrested.

The camera then showed Jimenez's producer Bill Kirkos being handcuffed taken into custody.

Shortly after that, the camera, which was still rolling, was taken away from the crew.



share with Facebookshare with Twittershare with emailshare linkCharles Ramsey, a veteran police chief who led departments in Philadelphia and Washington, DC and who now serves as a CNN law enforcement analyst, said the arrest of the CNN crew in Minneapolis "did not make any sense."

"The state police are going to have a lot to answer for with this arrest here," he said. "He's standing there, he identified himself. You can see his credentials. Just move him to where you want him to be."

Ramsey added that the there was "no way something like that should occur."

"I don't know where the person in command of that platoon is. But that's an individual who is definitely not taking charge," he added.

Watch:



share with Facebookshare with Twittershare with emailshare linkCNN has criticized the arrest of one of its teams on the ground in Minneapolis in a tweet this morning, and called for their release.



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